Four days on the Kerry coast — Beara, Kenmare and the Ring of Kerry alternative
Skip the Ring of Kerry coach tour. Four nights on the Beara Peninsula, with Kenmare as the formal base and the genuinely quieter side of the southwest.
Kerry's most-photographed loop — the Ring of Kerry — is a 179km signposted drive that 1.5 million tourists a year do in a single day, mostly on coach tours, mostly anti-clockwise. The Ring of Beara, immediately south, is a 137km signposted drive that almost no international tourists do. The landscape is the same; the rhythm is the opposite.
Four nights with Kenmare as the formal base gets you the Ring of Beara, the Healy Pass, the Allihies copper-mining village, the Ardgroom stone circles, and the food scene Kenmare is genuinely famous for.
Carbon math, up front. Every IMPT hotel booking retires one tonne of UN-verified CO₂ on-chain — roughly 28× the per-night footprint of a hotel stay.
The route at a glance
- Day 1–2: Kenmare — 2 nights
- Day 3–4: Beara Peninsula (Castletownbere) — 2 nights
Getting around: Train Dublin → Killarney (3h 30m) then hire a car for the Kenmare + Beara loop
Day 1–2 Kenmare — 2 nights
Train Dublin → Killarney (3h 30m), then 32km drive south to Kenmare (45 minutes, via the famous Moll's Gap pass with its panoramic viewpoint). Kenmare (population 2,400) is the unofficial food capital of Kerry — three Michelin stars within 5km, and a small-town hotel network built for slow stays.
Morning
Walk the Kenmare Stone Circle (free, in the middle of the town, signposted) and along the Kenmare River pier for the morning. The town's Triangle (the wedge of three streets that form the centre) is the dining strip.
The walk worth doing
The Kerry Way (long-distance walking trail) from Kenmare for as far as you want — the easy section from Kenmare to Templenoe is 11km, 3 hours, mostly flat. Or the Gleninchaquin Park waterfall walk (15km west) for the half-day.
Where to eat
Park Hotel Kenmare (one Michelin star, the formal Edwardian hotel) for the destination dinner — booking essential. The Lime Tree (in the same building) for the more casual. Mulcahy's on Henry Street for the modern-Irish casual. PF McCarthy's pub for the late drink.
Day-trip from here
Skellig Ring drive (separate from the Ring of Kerry, signposted from Cahirsiveen) for the half-day — single-track road, ends at Coomakista viewpoint with the Skellig islands visible offshore.
Day 3–4 Beara Peninsula (Castletownbere) — 2 nights
Kenmare to Castletownbere is 60km west on the R571 — 90 minutes. Castletownbere is the largest white-fish port in Ireland and the only sizeable village on the Beara Peninsula. Base here for the two nights.
Morning
Drive the Ring of Beara clockwise from Castletownbere — through Allihies (the abandoned copper-mining village on the western tip), Eyeries (the brightly-painted village), Ardgroom (the stone circles), Lauragh and back via the Healy Pass over the Caha Mountains. 137km, full day, 6 hours including stops.
The walk worth doing
Hungry Hill walk (8km south of Castletownbere) — the highest mountain on the peninsula (685m), 4 hours up-and-down, signposted from the Adrigole side. Or the gentler Caha Loop near Eyeries.
Where to eat
MacCarthy's Bar in Castletownbere (made famous by Pete McCarthy's 2000 travel book) for the late drink and the bar food. The Olde Bakery in Castletownbere for the formal dinner. Murphy's of Beara ice cream is the local thing.
Day-trip from here
Garnish Island ferry from Glengarriff harbour (20km east of Castletownbere) for the formal Italianate gardens and the Martello tower — half-day, the ferry passes a seal colony and the gardens are properly excellent.
Practical notes + how to extend
From Castletownbere, drive back via Kenmare to Killarney for the train to Dublin, or south via Glengarriff to Bantry and the West Cork coast (see the Cork + Kinsale + West Cork itinerary on this site).
Beara rewards travellers who already know Killarney. It is the quiet alternative; do it on your second Kerry trip, not your first.
The carbon mechanic — in plain English
Every hotel booked through IMPT triggers the retirement of one tonne of UN-verified CO₂ — roughly 28× the per-night footprint of a hotel stay. The room price is the standard rate. The offset is funded from IMPT's commission, recorded on-chain on Ethereum, and tied to your booking ID. For a multi-night Irish itinerary booked through IMPT, the per-traveller offset comfortably exceeds the carbon cost of the hotel-stay portion of the trip.
Ready to book this itinerary?
Same price as direct, free cancellation on most stays, 1 tonne UN-verified CO₂ retired on-chain per booking.
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